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When Malibu launched its \u201cGet Ready With Malibu Pink\u201d campaign this spring, the rum brand had all the necessary ingredients for a modern influencer campaign. Creator partnerships with Sabrina Brier and other influencers, on-trend \u201cget ready with me\u201d style videos, all centered on the debut of a new flavored rum with guava, coconut, and pineapple.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But there was also one element that was surprisingly new terrain for Malibu\u2019s parent company Pernod Ricard: its first major campaign designed specifically for TikTok.<\/p>\n
Until very recently, alcohol brands like Malibu were completely absent from TikTok. But over the past two years, TikTok\u2019s stronger age-gating protocols, which help guarantee to marketers like Malibu that the content they publish is only seen by legal-age users, have opened the platform for greater experimentation. The growing, cross-generational popularity of TikTok, with four in ten U.S. adults active on the platform and 80% over the age of 21, was also heralded as a key factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important for us to connect with Zillennials,\u201d Caroline Begley, Pernod Ricard\u2019s vice president of marketing, tells Fast Company of the importance of the microgeneration of younger millennials and older Gen Z. \u201cMalibu has been around for decades, but it\u2019s always important to introduce new consumers to the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Boozy TikTok campaigns have proliferated, including Grey Goose vodka\u2019s \u201cDevil Wears Prada 2\u201d content starring supermodel Heidi Klum, Espol\u00f2n Tequila\u2019s \u201cShot Kings Week\u201d celebration with actor and comedian Ken Jeong, St-Germain liqueur\u2019s spritz-making session with actress Sophie Turner, and a behind-the-scenes look at a commercial for the ready-to-drink brand -196 with content creator Pooja Tripathi.<\/p>\n They are now playing catch-up to connect with the highly coveted Gen Z crowd that dominates the cultural conversation and trends on an app that\u2019s already almost a decade old and generates more than $14 billion in U.S. advertising spending annually, according to data from market researcher eMarketer.<\/p>\n Pernod Ricard and Bacardi were early adopters, launching limited pilots beginning in 2024. At the same time, TikTok was in active discussions with the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), the liquor trade advocacy group responsible for setting the protocols for advertising across television, print media, out-of-home advertising, and social platforms including Facebook and Instagram.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nHow the rules changed<\/h2>\n